Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: selby on September 07, 2024, 11:19:19 pm
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After our terrific hard fought win v Gillingham we head for a Thursday evening game against a side who have an even better record against us in the league having never lost to us, despite not being big spenders, always seeming to play above expectations and compete at league level, and our supporters ( including myself) thinking we should win games against them, just a 2-2 draw away at Harrogate our only point against them.
Thursday is an odd day for a league fixture but one no doubt we will come across more times in the future as Sky pull the strings so is one big change, we are on a little run sitting on top of the division, Harrogate's four points this season have all been won away from home, and they had a sickener when losing today to an injury time 90+2 goal at Cheltenham while we were celebrating going top by beating the then top side in the division, WHAT CAN POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
Well are we jinxed against them is one question, they will want to get a result at home ASAP, and we have just had a slug fest and draining game with an early midweek game not helping our recovery.
Hopefully we have not picked up any niggles or injuries, our enthusiasm and team spirit must be sky high, and if you factor in our finish to last season we must be considered one of the best sides at League 2 level, and from the top down the club seem to be on the up, and our Chairman will want to win this game being from the area.
What team we put out changes should on form be few and far between unless tactical as every player has stood up to what has been asked of them the last few weeks, our fitness levels were at a level hard to improve on the last few games, everyone working so hard at their game, and bodes well for the future, it is hard not to get carried away with things after our poor form up to the start of this calendar year, and a win Thursday will put pressure on the pack behind us who will not want a gap to open up early in the season.
So it is all to play for, just a jinx to overcome just like Gillingham seemed to have over us for years.
It will not be easy, although we will probably have a full house of traveling supporters at the game who I hope see our first league victory there. Harrogate themselves will be wanting to desperately pick up some points from the game, and are not an easy side to play against and will make it difficult.
All the usual Questions, Are you going to the game? would you make changes? can we at last get their seemingly jinx off our back? come to mind, as well as the form of our team and players? what players in the opposition do you rate? how do you see this game going?
Please have your say Harrogate fans welcome also to do so.
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This game has a little side show with both Chairmen being friends for a long time being well known local to Doncaster business men, and a subject Terry mentioned at a supporters meeting with him and his ambition to at last do well against them and him to have the bragging rights.
So a lot on this Grant more pressure than usual.
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Fairly abysmal form this season. Played five league games and have four points only, from the sides currently 18th and 23rd. At home it is played two, lost two, scored zero (0). Barrow aside, they have played entirely a weak group of sides to date and have very little to show. It’s not easy playing them as we have demonstrated repeatedly, but this season so far, their form is bad.
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As an aside I've been to both away games and am missing this time so it will be a WIN for Rovers
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I think the majority of their goals conceded have been headers following set pieces. Happened again versus a poor Cheltenham side yesterday.
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If we can get the win, that would be a 4 PT gap to 2nd, psychology that would be a great boost .. mind the gap!!! Teams would already be playing catch-up!!!
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I know it’s one game at a time but a win and a draw (or two wins) in the next two games and we should get a bumper attendance for the Chesterfield game.
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I don’t know if they still have that little striker who always looks a world beater against us
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I don’t know if they still have that little striker who always looks a world beater against us
Odoh? He went to Peterborough
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Loved Grants comment in yesterday’s interview.
“Iv reminded the boys Harrogate took 6 points from us last season”.
He just doesn’t miss a trick does he. So determined and switched on.
I think we’re going to thump them.
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As well as we have played and got results apart from the blip at Newport I still feel we are still developing as a team and improvement will come as the season progresses.
Different players have stood up in different games and have pulled us through, for instance Billy Sharp has scored good strikers goals, Molyneux has excelled in other games and lately McGrath has excelled, great performances, but periods in most games where as a team we have been quite ordinary but always we seem to have the stand out player in the game.
Long may it continue, but I think we will get even better over the season as confidence builds, the keeper for instance has visibly improved and is more confident and pro active in just a few games, and will get better still with experience, and McGrath unrecognisable the last few games.
Consistency is now going to be the key, as well as staying clear of injury, and with Kelly an addition after the internationals who we coped with his absence well yesterday 2024 looks as though it can rival our record season in the 1940's in our history of league results.
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Forgive me for my knowledge, is the weaver of Harrogate any relation to the weaver of the Richardson era?
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Forgive me for my knowledge, is the weaver of Harrogate any relation to the weaver of the Richardson era?
I doubt it. One's a decent guy, the other's an absolute tw*t.
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Forgive me for my knowledge, is the weaver of Harrogate any relation to the weaver of the Richardson era?
I doubt it. One's a decent guy, the other's an absolute tw*t.
Correct Steve, and a Donny lad to boot.
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Ever the optimist I can't help thinking we are due a day when the near misses we have seen in our games this season all become goals. In which case we should get a big win against a side a class below ours.
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How many tickets were given and how many remain? Are we likely to sell out?
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I think one guy who’s definately due a goal is Gibson. He’s been a bit unlucky in a few games, including v Gillingham, and a goal of two could boost him. The other guy who’ll be busting to score will be Joe Ironside - yes he scored a very good penalty v Udders, but he’ll want one from open play - if he’s in the team, that is.
Hopefully, there’s no injuries to worry about and, if not, keep the same side? Is Kelly going to be back? Will GM want to rotate? Who knows but just get the 3 points, lads.
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How many tickets were given and how many remain? Are we likely to sell out?
just over a 1000 , 150 left behind the goal you are put in the corner of the stand
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Ever the optimist I can't help thinking we are due a day when the near misses we have seen in our games this season all become goals. In which case we should get a big win against a side a class below ours.
We did, on day 1..
More would be very welcome though!
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Be great if we can show our appreciation of TB
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A nice little win on Thursday to let GM get his frustrations out about last season. A 3-0 win away from home will be satisfying, let Rovers watch on Saturday with a smile on their faces and get them plenty of time to prepare for the (relatively) harder task of taking MK Dons away from home on the 21st.
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It’s a really nice feeling when you win prior to all the other kick offs, say on a Friday night.
You then really enjoy watching the results come in knowing you’ve won earlier, in a total state of relaxation. Simply tune into everyone else’s stresses, laugh at certain teams’ defeats and shortcomings.
This feeling of huge security and satisfaction must be called something?
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We are due to give a team a trashing, could come this Thursday in North Yorks. Let’s us wait and see. Be good to see our forwards and midfield unleashed on Harrogate.
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Along with a Gibson goal, it would be good for a centre back to get in on the act from corners McGrath is looking good for one eventually.
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Very close to a sold out away following with just over 40 tickets remaining.
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39 tickets left with 8 carer tickets left dunno if we got the full allocation but considering it’s a Thursday night and on sky, that’s a fantastic effort by everyone
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Missing this one as I’m away, but will be (hopefully, technology willing) watching from far warmer shores.
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Yet another test to overcome. Tight ground and I'm sure everyone connected with Harrogate will want to see us fall flat on our face (again) and will try every trick in the book to knock us off our stride. This won't be easy and our back line will have to be just as stingy, if not moreso away from home, as we were on Saturday.
If we can get the players into that mindset that every point matters, knock out football, as it was on last seasons run then we have a good chance.
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On top of losing Odoh, they also lost their main centre-half Rod McDonald.
Their star performers from last season Matty Daly and George Thomson appear to be injured.
0-3 away win. Sharp and Gibson with Ironside scoring a header.
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It will not be easy, they have pulled us apart in the past, and we are still work in progress, we cannot afford to have another Newport moment as they as a team are just as capable of taking advantage of it as Newport were.
Nothing in Football is a given and we need to be on it every game especially this one.
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I think one guy who’s definately due a goal is Gibson. He’s been a bit unlucky in a few games, including v Gillingham, and a goal of two could boost him. The other guy who’ll be busting to score will be Joe Ironside - yes he scored a very good penalty v Udders, but he’ll want one from open play - if he’s in the team, that is.
Hopefully, there’s no injuries to worry about and, if not, keep the same side? Is Kelly going to be back? Will GM want to rotate? Who knows but just get the 3 points, lads.
Rather than starting with Sharp it would surely be fair to give Ironside first bite for a change. He wears defences down even when he isn’t banging goals in and bringing on Sharp when the opposition are tiring to give them the run-around is probably the last thing they would want.
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I think one guy who’s definately due a goal is Gibson. He’s been a bit unlucky in a few games, including v Gillingham, and a goal of two could boost him. The other guy who’ll be busting to score will be Joe Ironside - yes he scored a very good penalty v Udders, but he’ll want one from open play - if he’s in the team, that is.
Hopefully, there’s no injuries to worry about and, if not, keep the same side? Is Kelly going to be back? Will GM want to rotate? Who knows but just get the 3 points, lads.
Rather than starting with Sharp it would surely be fair to give Ironside first bite for a change. He wears defences down even when he isn’t banging goals in and bringing on Sharp when the opposition are tiring to give them the run-around is probably the last thing they would want.
Yes, I'd like to see Ironside start. We need to make sure he's getting the opportunities and we play to his strengths. The more strings we have to our bow the better. This includes quality balls into the box for him to feed from, refining the runs around him to capitalise on his hold up play so he doesn't have to hold onto the ball too long before support arrives. Too often we play lofted balls up to him when he's perfectly capable of playing to feet.
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I genuinely think they'd work well together as a 9 and 10, with Ironside deeper, flicking on to Sharp - Grant has played Hurst and Sbarra in this role previously so wouldn't be too out of the ordinary as a formation. I think most defenses would soil themselves at the prospect of dealing with those two!
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Who would be the 4 behind a front 2? What formation?
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As much as I feel for Joe, I don't see how you can't start with Billy atm.
Joe's time will come again.
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Who would be the 4 behind a front 2? What formation?
A 3-5-2 would work well away from home & that would give Olowu a start as well. But, it would be a massive risk when we only have 2 out and out strikers in our squad!
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Who would be the 4 behind a front 2? What formation?
A 3-5-2 would work well away from home & that would give Olivia a start as well. But, it would be a massive risk when we only have 2 out and out strikers in our squad!
I'm all for women's football, Alan, but we're not ready for mixed football yet; so Olivia definitely won't be starting at Harrogate.
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Start Ironside in this one imo.
As said he wears defences down and then Billy can come on in last 25 mins and take advantage.
Fancy Joe to score 1 maybe 2 goals on Thursday.
Would love that. He is such a massive player for us.
Billy is getting all the adulation from the fans due to his cult hero status from his previous time with us which is expected but I would love the fans to chant Joe’s name also.
He is the best centre forward we have had since Chris Brown imo
Even better than Marquis with his hold up play and work rate imo.
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https://youtu.be/XJxyEI6v4vo?si=5XeJ__E15sa0MVYp
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Who would be the 4 behind a front 2? What formation?
A 3-5-2 would work well away from home & that would give Olivia a start as well. But, it would be a massive risk when we only have 2 out and out strikers in our squad!
I'm all for women's football, Alan, but we're not ready for mixed football yet; so Olivia definitely won't be starting at Harrogate.
Bloody predictive text!
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Joe's great, but Billy's scored in both of our last 2 league games, against dangerous teams.
Let's not start chopping and changing winning teams.
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Joe's great, but Billy's scored in both of our last 2 league games, against dangerous teams.
Let's not start chopping and changing winning teams.
I think GM is going to rotate our 2 strikers SS. He has so far.
Keeps them fresh.
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My first game in the flesh this season.
Hoping we dish out a good hiding.
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Start Ironside in this one imo.
As said he wears defences down and then Billy can come on in last 25 mins and take advantage.
Fancy Joe to score 1 maybe 2 goals on Thursday.
Would love that. He is such a massive player for us.
Billy is getting all the adulation from the fans due to his cult hero status from his previous time with us which is expected but I would love the fans to chant Joe’s name also.
He is the best centre forward we have had since Chris Brown imo
Even better than Marquis with his hold up play and work rate imo.
I don’t think we even have a Joe Ironside song.
Nice and simple would be “Joe Ironside” on repeat to the tune of “We’re f**kin shit” which was popular a couple of years ago.
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Heard a few people trying to get the abba chant going ‘ Gimme, gimme, gimme a striker from England…. ‘ but never took off.
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How many games do win need to win be for we can start singing the donnys won … in a row song
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I think that five should be the starting point for that song.
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Well, four wouldn't be unreasonable. There were threads last season when folk were asking 'when was the last time we won 3 in a row" then it mushroomed from there.
Six is a big one as our history, and football shows, it's not easy.
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We are being spoiled at the moment, since last February our results have been fantastic and will be hard to replicate in the near future even though we have strengthened the squad in my opinion over the closed season.
If we do keep the winning run going again Grant will have built a squad that is playing out of it's class which has been done before Ramsey's Ipswich, and Revie's Leeds two examples but is rarely achieved without lot's of money being thrown at it.
At the moment it is keep our feet on the ground and take games one at a time and hopefully keep up the run we have started on again, and if we have a set back react the right way and respond, and never take things for granted and respect the opposition at all times.
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It will be interesting to see if he sticks with the same midfield. Broadbent missed out completely last week but I don't think I'd put him straight back in.
I thought Close added some control back in, after we allowed Gillingham alot more possession but again, I'm not sure I would start him ahead of Westbrooke. Close had a bit of a mare at Harrogate last season, falling asleep to let their winger in for one of the goals.
I think I'd favour Westbrooke, Bailey and Clifton again to start.
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How many games do win need to win be for we can start singing the donnys won … in a row song
it was two at port vale, lol
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It will not be easy, they have pulled us apart in the past, and we are still work in progress, we cannot afford to have another Newport moment as they as a team are just as capable of taking advantage of it as Newport were.
Nothing in Football is a given and we need to be on it every game especially this one.
Correct, i'd imagine that Newport display would have been very carefully bisected and discussed to the third degree by GM and the squad. If its been a learning curve for them then there may have been some benefit to it.
As the team starts to gel and develop its game then these are the type of games that you need to come down hard on.
A decent win would demonstrate to the league our intentions and determination to make this count, we need to be clinical and reduce the errors to an absolute minimum.
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It will not be easy, they have pulled us apart in the past, and we are still work in progress, we cannot afford to have another Newport moment as they as a team are just as capable of taking advantage of it as Newport were.
Nothing in Football is a given and we need to be on it every game especially this one.
Correct, i'd imagine that Newport display would have been very carefully bisected and discussed to the third degree by GM and the squad. If its been a learning curve for them then there may have been some benefit to it.
As the team starts to gel and develop its game then these are the type of games that you need to come down hard on.
A decent win would demonstrate to the league our intentions and determination to make this count, we need to be clinical and reduce the errors to an absolute minimum.
Well the Newport game swung on Grant's changes - after conceding early 2nd half, we were getting back into things, Broadbent went off for Sbarra and that was pretty much it. The Newport central midfielders suddenly had the physical advantage and overran our midfield, Grant has alluded to this himself without naming names - but as one who was their it stood out a mile. Sbarra is at best an impact player coming on late in games.
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Playing in the white kit tonight.
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Good, the white shirt with the black v on the front in the Jones McCombe era must have been one of our most successful away shirts, hopefully the new one will be.
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I think one guy who’s definately due a goal is Gibson. He’s been a bit unlucky in a few games, including v Gillingham, and a goal of two could boost him. The other guy who’ll be busting to score will be Joe Ironside - yes he scored a very good penalty v Udders, but he’ll want one from open play - if he’s in the team, that is.
Hopefully, there’s no injuries to worry about and, if not, keep the same side? Is Kelly going to be back? Will GM want to rotate? Who knows but just get the 3 points, lads.
Rather than starting with Sharp it would surely be fair to give Ironside first bite for a change. He wears defences down even when he isn’t banging goals in and bringing on Sharp when the opposition are tiring to give them the run-around is probably the last thing they would want.
Yes, I'd like to see Ironside start. We need to make sure he's getting the opportunities and we play to his strengths. The more strings we have to our bow the better. This includes quality balls into the box for him to feed from, refining the runs around him to capitalise on his hold up play so he doesn't have to hold onto the ball too long before support arrives. Too often we play lofted balls up to him when he's perfectly capable of playing to feet.
I rewatched the Gills game and noticed there was one instance where against the odds Joe got in front of the big defender and won the header with a lay off in to a good position. Gibson was miles away like he didn’t expect anything to come of it and Gills got the ball back.
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Very aggressive team , good at closing down, targeting luke hard, counter attacks are dangerous, 2nd half we need tk be more aggressive, watch the counters,
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Harrogate, like Newport, is a piece of shit on the footballing pavement that we always tread in and can never get off our shoe. Every single time, without fail, it’s on the sole of our shoe. Impossible to scrape off. Always there.
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Fair play to them. They've deserved this tonight. Faster, hungrier and stronger than us in every position.
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Out thought and out fought. wouldn't say they wanted it more, Close losing the ball and a lack of positioning and pace straight down the centre of defence cost us dearly.
Still Harrogate's bunny's
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Their fitness is unreal. Deserved it.
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Sterry should have stopped cross for first one.
Keeper couldn't have made himself any smaller for the second.
Hey ho, we are going to lose games this season but still guna win the league.
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There centre backs were far better than ours, no excuses it’s that simple. Poor overall performance
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Sterry should have stopped cross for first one.
Keeper couldn't have made himself any smaller for the second.
Hey ho, we are going to lose games this season but still guna win the league.
Sterry stopping crosses? Never in a month of Sundays.
Piss poor defensively, makes the same mistakes every single match. He never learns.
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Sterry should have stopped cross for first one.
Keeper couldn't have made himself any smaller for the second.
Hey ho, we are going to lose games this season but still guna win the league.
Sterry stopping crosses? Never in a month of Sundays.
Piss poor defensively, makes the same mistakes every single match. He never learns.
Agree
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Never going to win that. Could tell from first 10 minutes. They got 11 behind ball from whistle being blow. We couldn’t get through that and could never break quick enough to get behind them. We need to do better because that’s not the only side who will do that against us this season. Really poor not to expect that and have a way through.
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Got to say that Harrogate simply looked better than us. Doubled up on the wide players really well. Very well organised. Pressed hard when they needed to and took the chances they got.
Really poor defending for both goals from us though.
We can’t put blame on that decision to play on being a deciding factor tonight because it absolutely wasn’t, we gave possession away too easily.
I’d like to think it’s just early season gelling issues but that needs to be a wake up call for a couple of our lads who have had some poor games recently. I don’t think I need to name names.
I’d love to know what Sbarra is doing wrong, he can’t seem to buy minutes.
Put that one behind us quickly and bounce back at MK. RTID
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Need to start showing some character when we are losing because it’s just chaos when we do. The moment we lose a goal panic sets in and it turns into a group of individuals making really poor decisions. At the end does anybody know what we were trying to do with the personnel on the pitch? Because it was all more hope than quality that was going to get us a goal back. It’s a worry as it happens a lot under GM. When the other team takes a lead it almost seems nailed on that they will get another. Well done to Harrogate because they headed, kicked, chased, fought and won every loose ball. We will do well to be that poor again all season. Ref also the worst we’ve had for a very long time.
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Never going to win that. Could tell from first 10 minutes. They got 11 behind ball from whistle being blow. We couldn’t get through that and could never break quick enough to get behind them. We need to do better because that’s not the only side who will do that against us this season. Really poor not to expect that and have a way through.
I know it's easily said in hindsight but honestly thought Ironside would've been starting tonight.
Then second half putting him on with Billy felt desperate and not practiced previously. Then became a big boot all time. Easy to defend.
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Another big lesson for us all. There are no easy games plus, teams are likely to raise their games against us, although Weaver doesn't need much motivation to get another one over us.
We're not near enough the finished article to rise above whatever is thrown at us.
The good news is McCann will now hopefully avoid manager of the month. Plenty of time now to reassess and tweak a few things.
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GM needs to do some soul searching. When has 3 v 5 ever worked in midfield? And one of our 3 was Close!
That was not a top 3 performance or anywhere near it. We made it easy for Harrogate!
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We’ve 12 points from 6 games so we are safely in automatic form but we’ve been soundly and easily beaten by two weak sides. That is a real concern. If they can learn, others can learn.
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Never going to win that. Could tell from first 10 minutes. They got 11 behind ball from whistle being blow. We couldn’t get through that and could never break quick enough to get behind them. We need to do better because that’s not the only side who will do that against us this season. Really poor not to expect that and have a way through.
Totally agree. As you say we will come up against that frequently. I generally favour a different approach away from home to suck the home team out by being very conservative to start with. Be almost boring playing it across the pitch. Fans might not like it but it's a means to an end.
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Fair play to them. They've deserved this tonight. Faster, hungrier and stronger than us in every position.
This 100%. Not one of our team won their individual battles in that game and the number of times the ball broke out of their defence 50/50 and the Harrogate player not only won the ball but easily outran his man whilst carrying the ball was seriously worrying. Some of our players are not nearly as good as some people think.
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Talk about knee jerk reactions ??
The referee cost us the first and the 2nd was a fluke - other than that they didn't lay a glove on us, play that game 100 times over and we win it 90 times plus.
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Don't agree that the ref cost us the first. He played a good advantage, then we played a couple of passes and gave the ball away. He couldn't let the advantage run forever. There was no infringement after that from Harrogate so what's the problem?
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Guess we had another Newport moment, but nice to know we have not lost our habit of getting teams back on track after not doing so well.
We would do better playing top sides every week.
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Their first goal was very well taken, right in the corner from an acute angle - not much the keeper could doing about that (although some are trying to find a blame) at some point you have to realise it was great play, and a superb finish.
The second is a bit of Sunday league stuff really, and a bit embarrassing.
For all our possession not one “real" chance I can remember, it was all half chances, and we should be so much better with the talent we have.
A slight positive is I thought Hurst looked better, stronger more direct with his play.
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Had to laugh at this last night.....
Sky changing Doncaster from the usual DON to DR to prevent it from reading as HAR...DON...
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We do tend to struggle as most teams would with the low block.Sure Grant will be on it but it really is our Achilles heel trying to break teams down that play like this. Sadly the better we are, the more we will come up against it.
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Just seem the extended highlights and obviously the goals aside, there was some decent stuff. Things didn't come off in the final third, lacking quality on the final pass, cross, shot, header etc.
Even McGraths ventures into attacking areas are to be encouraged. We know he's a good striker of a ball, so if he can carry it deep into their territory, that's one of the ways we can counter the low block. Of course, we need to cover in behind and, give him an option if the shot isn't on.
Most of our efforts on goal weren't cleanly hit and gave their defence and keeper the chance to block and clear.
Not a new phenomenon but working on crosses to pick someone out (as did Gibson to Molyneux) instead of too many percentage balls hoping someone gets near the ball. For example, their first was a great executed ball for their lad to attack. There was only one part of the goal he could have scored and he glanced it perfectly. These are areas where Sharp, Ironside, Cilfton, Bailey are all capable of getting in if we commit to the runs.
On another day, it's a different result.
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Moment it kicked off I was worried. That pitch looked tiny and they were crowding players from the first kick. No space for us to move or break.
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One thing I thought was noteworthy at Harrogate Town was the quality of the tannoy system. It was as clear as a bell and I heard every single word.
A stark contrast to the Eco Power Stadium where I can hardly make out anything that is said.
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One thing I thought was noteworthy at Harrogate Town was the quality of the tannoy system. It was as clear as a bell and I heard every single word.
A stark contrast to the Eco Power Stadium where I can hardly make out anything that is said.
It was quality, played some great turns too.
Only problem was you could hear the cheesy posh bloke on the mic perfectly. Really irritating man.
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Food was top drawer as well , also they had a lad coming down the que taking orders so they were ready by the time you got to the front
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Metal Micky,
On that theme, what will they do when Cambridge United play Northampton Town !!
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Guess we had another Newport moment,
Was it "worryingly bad" ?
Well done.
I'd like to reciprocate by remembering something you added to any discussion last month that stuck in my memory.
Give me a minute....
Nope.
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My apologies. Been a tough week.